Teaching piano key geography to young piano students is one of my favorite parts of teaching beginners! Showing them an easy way to learn and remember the piano keys opens up a brand new world to them, and I’m happy to play a role in that learning process. Please enjoy this free piano pedagogy workshop in which I demonstrate how I teach piano key geography to beginning piano students, starting in the very first piano lesson.

Why I teach piano key geography starting in the first piano lesson:

There are many reasons I teach piano key geography in the very first piano lesson.

1. Familiarity with the full range of the piano keyboard leads to more confidence in beginning piano students.
2. Comfort with piano key geography helps piano students be more courageous in exploring the full range of sounds on the piano.
3. Learning the piano keys across the range of the piano helps with teaching high/low, left/right.
4. Learning the piano keys is a great way to help with improvisation.
5. Learning all the piano keys from the beginning helps prevent students from feeling “locked” into a “position” on the piano.
6. Having students learn the white piano keys from the first lesson ensures that when they’re learning to read the “beginner notes with letters” they won’t be overwhelmed trying to learn the keys and learning to read the letters at the same time.
7. When students get to the white keys in many of the beginning method books, they’ll already be very comfortable with where the white keys are located, and this makes playing the “beginner notes with letters” much easier and less intimidating for them.

In this free piano pedagogy workshop, I’ll be showing you exactly how I teach piano key geography to beginning piano students. I’ll also share information about why I teach the piano keys the way that I do, and at the end of this article, I’ll share some additional resources and activities to further reinforce the piano keys for your beginning piano students.

Teaching Piano Key Geography workshop

Don’t see the video above? Watch it here.

If you don’t remember how you learned piano key geography and you want to teach piano keys in a way that doesn’t confuse your young students, I hope this will help you out! You can teach piano key geography from the very first lesson so the student automatically feels successful and confident in their learning.

Here are a few take-away tips from the workshop:

• Finding a pattern in the black keys
• Low to high and high to low black piano key geography
• I always teach D first with a rhyme
• Second piano key: F
• Third piano key: B
• Teaching the music alphabet
• How to use flashcards to solidify piano key geography
• Assign piano key review for the first few lessons
• Speedy keys game using a timer
• When to know your student is confident enough to stop reviewing regularly
• An alternate way to explain piano key geography with a story
• Why I save the music alphabet on piano keys after teaching other piano key geography
• Teaching music alphabet backward
• A quick word on how to adapt this to teach older teens/adult students piano key geography

Resources and games to help you teach piano key geography

• Piano Keys Spelling Bee piano keys game for beginner piano students
• Beethoven Says beginning piano keys game and the Halloween version Zombie Says beginning piano keys game
• Piano Keys Boom Cards™
• Beginning Piano Worksheets
• View all of my printable games for piano lessons

Other related blog posts

• 9 Essentials to Include in a First Piano Lesson
• Googly Eye Dice: Tutorial and Teaching Tips for Piano Lessons
• Piano Keys Are a Breeze! 11 Introductory Piano Key Recognition Activities